South Windsor artist finds a home for her traveling art classes in Manchester

Artist Bri Dill has been operating a mobile art class called Art.Lab for the past year.

Now, she's planning to open a permanent location for her business on Feb. 7 in Manchester.

Dill, 26, of South Windsor, is renting the former DuBaldo Music Center location at 186 West Middle Turnpike and has transformed the space into an art gallery and classroom.

She said the experience of offering traveling art classes and paint parties all over Connecticut has helped her as she sets up a place of her own.

"The whole point was to get a following of people," Dill said. "I wanted to have it evolve into something more advanced than just working with beginners."

Dill, a graduate of Tufts University, has been painting since she was 16, when she took watercolor classes with her grandmother. But she said she never envisioned herself as a teacher.

"The whole process of creating art changed my whole way of thinking about things," Dill said, "but I never felt I was going to be a teacher.

"Once I started doing the paint classes, I realized I kind of had a knack for teaching. I meet a lot of cool people and have gotten a pretty solid foundation of students."

She said she wasn't exactly searching for a storefront when she came upon the DuBaldo store. But the combination of the space, which already had a classroom in the rear of the building, from when music lessons were held there, and the idea of having a "bricks and mortar" location for her business was enough to persuade Dill, and her boyfriend, Chris Lareau, 26, to take the next step.

"This kind of fell into my lap," Dill said. "I immediately knew this was the space. I came and saw it and for me the price was right and the layout was right."

The DuBaldo family said they are happy to see the tradition of the arts continued in their former space. The family recently relocated their business to Beller's Music on Main Street.

"The vision to build DuBaldo Music Center was born from a passion for music," said Donna DuBaldo. "It is a natural transition for her to now use the space to build on her vision for creating, sharing and teaching art."

Dill said she plans to offer a variety of classes, from an after-school children's program to advanced painting, as well as other community events throughout the year.

"I really want this to be a place where people from the community can feel like they can just come by," Dill said. "I don't want it to have a stigma of an art gallery. It's really more community-oriented."

Dill said her focus is to continue to build on the foundation of artists she's met in the last year.

"I'm looking forward to creating a small network of people who feel comfortable here and want to come here all the time and who find inspiration here that makes them want to create," Dill said. "My goal is to encourage people to be creative and use it."

The class schedule for February and March will be announced at the grand opening, Feb. 7, from 2 to 10 p.m., at Art.Lab at 186 West Middle Turnpike. More information is available at artlabct.com.